I love ESP

[antisymmetric]

Here's a video of one being painted.

Good video, thanks for sharing!

[tammyw]

Changing things up for page 2, this week's ESP is the Rusty Iron Arrow.

I wish there was a video showing how they paint like this, up close you can see a few different layers of metallics and transparents in the textured finish.

These are neck-thru guitars with three-piece maple necks and alder body wings, with a 24 fret ebony fingerboard.

I swapped out the original Seymour Duncan Blackouts for the Jeff Loomis set, the neck pickup actually has A5 rod magnets for extra clarity. And with the Arrow, the only controls you get are one volume and a three-way toggle.

[Shadoweclipse13]

The Randy Rhodes shaped V with the reverse head is SO

[Jaguar018]

Oh man that is so fucking cool.

Getting some custom ESP arrow is on my bucket list of mildly irresponsible dream purchases.

[tammyw]

Oh yeah, Arrows are fantastic. That curly cutout in the back always makes me think of a bass clef.

Compared to a Jackson Randy Rhoads model, the Arrow is a little bigger overall and especially in the lower leg, with much broader bevels. These Arrows have a reasonably thin neck profile, but it's still more rounded than a typical Jackson.

Continuing with the Arrow theme, this week's ESP is the Andromeda II Arrow with that great blue/purple color-shift paint-job. This one came with the EMG "HET" set pickups, and although I hate that guy, they're pretty decent pickups (I like them more than a standard EMG 60 at least). The black nickel hardware looks sleek with the that deep color.

[tammyw]

We're going to finish up the last week in September with one more Arrow. This one has a Liquid Metal Silver finish with contrasting gold hardware, and Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackouts.

[tammyw]

This weeks guitar is something a little more conventional: ESP calls their Strat copy the Snapper. This one is a signature model for Takayoshi Ohmura in a Twinkle Pink finish with a scalloped maple fingerboard and gold hardware. The base color is a bold metallic pink and then it has rainbow-holographic silver flakes applied on top, it's fantastically bright when the light reflects off it, definitely another great birthday party color. It comes with Seymour Duncan STK-S1 "Classic Stack" hum-cancelling pickups, but the funny thing is the middle pickup isn't connected to the circuit (even though it's a real pickup), it has a three-way switch with just neck / neck+bridge / bridge positions.

[SignoftheDragon]

eerp... you lost me on the strat copy. IMO the only thing that has going for it is the pink + sparkles.

MOAR SHREDDYS PLEASE.

If I'm going to drool over an ESP, I want it to be something slay-worthy!

[tammyw]

Ha ha ha... sorry, you'll just have to bear with it a while longer, I'll get back to some pointier stuff later.

But for this week, the spotlight is on this lovely TE-II from the ESP USA custom shop. The ash body has both comfort contours and a contoured neck heel, and the quarter-sawn maple neck has a nice rounded medium profile.

They call this color "Blueberry," and I love the way it looks almost pastel in bright light. Under dimmer lighting it's much more muted and earthy. It's a very thin, open-grain, satin finish.

It originally came with a pair of black Seymour Duncan pickups, but I swapped them out for a set of gold-top Dimarzios (PAF 36th Anniversary neck and Fortitude bridge) to match the gold Hipshot bridge, Sperzel tuners, and knobs. I painted the mounting-ears of the pickups flat black so they wouldn't stand out in the open cavities since it doesn't have bezels. Found a gold switch tip for it, too.

[tammyw]

Up next is another one from ESP USA: a Viper in Aqua Marine Fade. Admittedly the satin finish is a bit underwhelming and doesn't bring out the figure of the top very well. But compared to an SG this thing is a tank. The 45mm body is thicker than 1.75" and the three piece mahogany neck has carbon fiber reinforcements. It's hefty and solid.

It originally came with Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups, which worked well in this guitar, but I swapped them out for a set of D'Urbano Big Birds just to try something different. They have a bit more punch than I was expecting. Currently the push/pull pot is wired for coil splitting, but I'm thinking of changing it to phase switching. I also replaced the gold speed knobs with cream to better match the pickup rings.

[tammyw]

This week I present the ESP Random Star Kasumi III, a signature model for Kasumi Toyama. It has rainbow stripes and pearloid star inlays in the fingerboard and body! The alder body also has a tummy scarf and contoured neck heel on the back, and a bolt-on three-piece maple neck with tilt-back headstock. Despite it's bulky size it still only weighs in around mid-7lbs. It's equipped with standard Gotoh hardware along with Seymour Duncan '59 neck and JB bridge humbuckers. The extra mini toggle is just a kill switch on this one. Stars and rainbows are among my favorite things.

[SignoftheDragon]

YASSSSS! Now we're talking!

For some reason the 'Star' shape holds a special place in my heart- not sure if I'd ever buy one, but it just seems to capture the essence of an appealing facet of 80s glam that speaks to me.

Oh, and the Warrior shape.
and the Rhoads V. (and the Arrows upthread)
and the Kelly.

I guess there's a part of me that wants to SHRED. No shirt, leather straps, undies-outside-the-pants SHRED.


Too bad my skills aren't up to the challenge with all of those deedle-doos and wheedly-wheedly-wows.

I'll just be over here... making beautiful textured chords on the 12-string.

[Jonesie]

YASSSSS! Now we're talking!

For some reason the 'Star' shape holds a special place in my heart- not sure if I'd ever buy one, but it just seems to capture the essence of an appealing facet of 80s glam that speaks to me.

Oh, and the Warrior shape.
and the Rhoads V. (and the Arrows upthread)
and the Kelly.

I guess there's a part of me that wants to SHRED. No shirt, leather straps, undies-outside-the-pants SHRED.


Too bad my skills aren't up to the challenge with all of those deedle-doos and wheedly-wheedly-wows.

I'll just be over here... making beautiful textured chords on the 12-string.

How are you at squeedly-boos?

[SignoftheDragon]

YASSSSS! Now we're talking!

For some reason the 'Star' shape holds a special place in my heart- not sure if I'd ever buy one, but it just seems to capture the essence of an appealing facet of 80s glam that speaks to me.

Oh, and the Warrior shape.
and the Rhoads V. (and the Arrows upthread)
and the Kelly.

I guess there's a part of me that wants to SHRED. No shirt, leather straps, undies-outside-the-pants SHRED.


Too bad my skills aren't up to the challenge with all of those deedle-doos and wheedly-wheedly-wows.

I'll just be over here... making beautiful textured chords on the 12-string.

How are you at squeedly-boos?

You KNOW I can squeedle with the best of 'em!

[tammyw]

Yeah, back when I first started playing I really thought the Random Stars and Warriors were what an electric guitar should be, although I ended up with a Dean ML because it was the closest I could find that I could afford at the time.

Anyway, here's a first edition Kasumi Toyama signature Random Star, it doesn't have the rainbow stripes but instead it has the LED option.